Evli strengthens the consideration of human rights and global norms in its investment activities through new Human Rights Principles.
The importance of human rights in business and investment activities has increased in recent years, as climate change, armed conflicts, and the global deterioration of human and civil rights have heightened the risk of adverse human rights impacts. At the same time, evolving sustainability regulation, geopolitical tensions, and disruptions in global supply chains have highlighted the importance of managing human rights impacts as part of business risk management and investment decision-making. This has increased the need for developing approaches that enable human rights impacts to be more effectively integrated into investment activities.
Evli has monitored the implementation of global norms in its investments since 2016. Human rights have been one of the key focus areas of Evli's responsible investment.
New Human Rights Principles describe how human rights impacts are considered in investment activities. In addition, the principles reinforce Evli Wealth Management’s commitment to respecting human rights and key global standards on human rights, labour rights, and corporate responsibility in investment activities. The principles also set expectations for investee companies on respecting human rights.
"Through our engagement with companies, we have observed that companies are interested in investors’ views on various sustainability issues. Investors have an opportunity to set expectations for companies and influence how they develop and implement their strategies, including how they address human rights in their operations. This is precisely why we believe that human rights can be advanced through the use of investor engagement and active dialogue with companies," says Elina Niiranen, Sustainability Manager of Responsible Investment Team at Evli.
The Human Rights Principles are based on Evli’s four pillars of responsible investment and its Responsible Investment Principles. In line with the Human Rights Principles, Evli seeks to:
- Assess investee companies prior to investment decisions and monitor them regularly.
- Act as an active owner by engaging with companies and supporting initiatives and statements that promote human rights.
- Develop reporting, analysis methods, and risk management processes of our investments to better identify and assess the human rights impacts.
- Apply heightened human rights due diligence where the operating environment or the investee company presents an elevated risk of adverse human rights impacts or norm violations.
"We developed Human Rights Principles on internationally recognized frameworks, principles, and standards relating to business and human rights. We chose to publish the principles on United Nations Day because we believe that a rules-based international order and human rights-based approaches are important in investment activities, particularly at a time when the world is increasingly affected by geopolitical tensions, armed conflicts and the global erosion of human and civil rights," says Hung Ly, Junior Analyst, Responsible Investment at Evli.
Evli's Human Rights Principles
Additional information:
Elina Niiranen, Sustainability Manager, Responsible Investment, Evli Plc,
tel. +358 40 567 3446, elina.niiranen@evli.com
Hung Ly, Junior Analyst, Responsible Investment, Evli Plc,
hung.ly@evli.com
